A Seat at the Table: Persons with Disabilities and Policy Making

K.V. Nagarajan is a professor in the Department of Economics at
Laurentian University.

People with disabilities are everywhere discriminated against, ignored,
and isolated. Canada is the only country in the world to recognize their
equality rights in its 1982 constitutional document. Based on theories
of citizenship participation as well as extensive interviews with key
actors in the disability organizational field, the authors paint a
thorough picture of both the initial success and the subsequent troubles
faced by the disability lobby groups at both the federal and provincial
levels.

After presenting some historical background and a discussion of
theoretical considerations, the book focuses on four case studies: The
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in the 1982 Constitution, the
Charlottetown Accord, the Ontario Advocacy Act, and the Adult
Guardianship legislation in British Columbia. In the first case, the
struggle was over inclusion of four words—“mental and physical
disability”—in the proposed Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The
lobby groups were relentless in their pursuit of then justice minister
Jean Chrétien, who eventually reversed his opposition. This success was
not to be repeated in later constitutional proposals.

The lobbying done between 1993 and 1995 in Ontario was quite effective
in filling in some of the gaps, but some of the gains evaporated under
Mike Harris. The Progressive Conservatives avoided public consultation,
and lobbying was ineffective (the authors inexplicably fail to
acknowledge the latter fact, continuing to assert the power of lobby
groups). In contrast, the British Columbia case study shows that the
gains made in the form of the new Adult Guardianship legislation were
preserved.

Despite its successes, the authors find that the “disability sector
remains fragmented, under-resourced, and prone to pursue particular
political connections rather than developing the breadth of skills
required for full policy participation.” This book provides a good
glimpse at the road traveled, but there is still a lot of work ahead.